A Murrieta gridiron great

Good Sunday morning to you. Brunch is in the parking lot of the
Q today before the Padres game.

Ron Yary, 55, came to the Murrieta area about a decade ago to
look around.

"I liked the ruralness of the area and how spread out everything
was," he said.

For a guy who spent 15 seasons smashing helmets in the autumnal
trench war that is the National Football League, the hills of La
Cresta seemed like a good place to let the ding of a Jack
Youngblood head-slap slowly fade.

Two and a half years ago, Ron and his wife, Jamie, bought a home
in the hills west of Murrieta. They currently rent the house out.
Fifteen months ago, the couple rented a home off Clinton Keith
Road. They plan to move into their La Cresta property next
year.

"This is going to be home," Ron told me Friday. "This is our
final resting place."

Two weeks from today, Ron and Jamie will journey from their new
community on a trip to the holy grail of pro football, Canton,
Ohio, where Ron will take his place alongside the greatest to ever
play the game when he is inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

On Aug. 4, Yary, an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings
from 1968 to 1981 and the Los Angeles Rams from 1981 to 1982, will
stand on the steps at Canton with Marv Levy, Nick Buoniconti,
Jackie Slater, Lynn Swann, Mike Munchak and his old nemesis
Youngblood, a defensive end for the Rams, as the class of 2001
joins the other 211 inductees into the Hall.

"I'm so happy to be going in with Jack Youngblood," Yary said.
"We had some fierce battles with each other over the years."

Yary was named All-Pro six times, All-NFC eight times and played
in seven Pro Bowls.

Before his pro career, he was an All-American in both his junior
and senior years at USC, won the Outland Trophy as the outstanding
interior lineman in college football and was the first player
selected in the 1968 NFL draft.

"This is the 18th year since I retired and you have 20 years of
eligibility to get into the Hall before you end up going into the
senior division," he said. "Before now, I didn't think that much
about (getting into the Hall of Fame). This was the first year I
really watched what was going on."

Members of the Hall of Fame are chosen by a 38-member committee
that includes a media member from each city with an NFL team.

Legendary football coaches Chuck Knoll, Mike Holmgren, John
McKay and Bud Grant were among those who wrote letters on behalf of
Yary.

Burns was Minnesota's offensive coordinator during Yary's
playing days and Holler is the president of the Minnesota Vikings
Fan Club of Virginia.

"Wherever you go there are Viking fans," he said. "They love
their football."

They also love winning, which is something the Vikings did a lot
during Yary's career, making the playoffs in 12 of his 14 seasons
and appearing in four Super Bowls.

"This is not an occupation you want to be in if you're losing
all the time," he said. "When you're winning, it's a great
occupation to be in."

Yary, who grew up in Bellflower, also fell for Minnesota.

"I really liked the Midwestern lifestyle," Yary said. "The
Minneapolis-St.Paul area was really just a small town when I got
there."

He hopes to find a similar environment in Murrieta.

"The way the city is growing, this is not going to be a rural
area much longer," he said. "But I like the way things are in La
Cresta"

Yary, who was notified of his selection in January, began
working on his acceptance speech in March.

"It's pretty much already done," he said. "I just have to tweak
it a little."

The couple recently sold their interest in a printing and
photography business.

"I'm in a great position right now because I can take about a
year off and participate in all of the Hall of Fame activities,"
Ron said. "The fanfare is overwhelming. I could go to a different
event just about every weekend and, most of them involve raising
money for charity."